Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Harmony One

I picked up a Harmony one as a door crasher on Boxing day, it should be here next week. I am wondering if it would be of benefit to move up to the 900 to get the RF capability, is there any difference other than the RF between the 2? From what I can find out there isn't. I would like to have the RF capability but do not really need it as my av equipment is in the same room, but you never know what I may do once I get into the new house. Also the charging cradle is a great idea.

I have also noticed the URC MX-50 at Tigerdirect.ca, it is cheaper than the Harmony One and has RF.

Any thoughts?

Isn't there an RF module that you can get as an accessory for the One?

I think the URC's give better flexibility, but the ease os use with the Logitech system works out better in my house. Never liked the looks of the URC's either.

After reading the reviews of the Logitech remotes on newegg.com, I would definitely go with the Logitech Harmony 1100. They have it for $350, (normally $500). Bad reviews for the 900. Slow speed and short range.

The Harmony One does not do RF at all, my mistake for buying it, I thought it did and I the URC does not have that very handy recharge cradle, decisions, decisions.....

Send it to me...

Sure as soon as I am done with it, invoice to follow in the mail

I love my Harmony one... If you don't want it, I'd take a second for the living room for the right price. :-)

It's not that I don't want it, just wondering if the RF features of the other 2 are worth fretting over. I think the RF would make it much easier to ensure all things happen with this type of remote as it doesn't have to stay pointed at the av rack and with the kids and wife, they tend get a little impatient and stop pointing the remote before it has done its thing and then the system is not set up right.

What do you have that needs an RF remote? Getting an RF remote doesn't magically work with equipment that only has IR capabilities.

Pretty much all of my gear in my theater is isolated from the rest of the house, and it is all IR, so no need to pay for RF for me.

RF remotes are working through IR blasters so, yes, they magically work with IR equipment. RF is to avoid avoid to point the remote when long macros are executing and also to have equipments in various places (left, right, center, behind).
I am not sure I understand the "isolated from the rest of the house" part with regards to IR.

IR works by line of sight or at the very least reflections so if your av gear is isolated you must have repeaters, which is more or less how the RF works only it works even if something is sitting in front of the receiver, which is why I am thinking more about Rf capabilities, no line of sight needed. And as Eric pointed out with long macros to work with it can become inconvenient to use a IR remote, not for me but the rest of the family tends to have issues.

My projector is behind me and my equipment is to my left in my home theater. If I point the remote straight at the middle of my screen in front of me, everything works perfectly. Even with the macros... The Harmony One is also supposed to have a fairly wide signal "broadcast" so to speak, so maybe I'm just lucky with enough reflection of the signal off of the screen.


Hmmm... I wonder if that would work with all of the equipment behind someone if the signal could be bounced off of a front projection screen. Then it would eliminate the need for IR Blasters for some people....

As for the "magically working" part, my point was that a RF remote won't make an IR device that it out of line of sight, or in another room work out of the box. You need the IR Blaster pieces. I just wanted to make sure that the OP knew that there would be additional equipment to buy if RF capabilities were a "must have"...

Lastly, as for being somewhat isolated, that means that I don't run any media center PC in another room of the house, and my one Dish receiver is in the home theater (it is a 2 TV model, so the other TV gets the RF remote)... Thus, I am not really communicating or needing to control a device or box outside of the home theater where RF is an absolute must have.

The harmony remotes do have a very wide dispersion and they do reflect the signals incredibly well as I have the 676 and it has worked very well with my odd system in the previous house but there were many times I would be called in to 'fix' the problem because the remote was set down too soon to have the sequence run it's course. I guess it really comes down to my desire for RF and the ease of use that it offers, no need to point the remote at all vs. ensuring the equipment is in the open at all times.....

I think if I go RF the URC will be the one inspite of reviews that say it is hard to program as they appear to sell this model with out a manual? Must research this lack of manual more.....

You own a Denon. Why would you need a manual?

To inspire you to buy a Harmony so you can burn said manual?

It has been said that the devil uses pages of the Denon manual as toilet paper.

I have completed some initial research into the R-50 and it really does appear to come with no manual. They use the LCD with an online tutorial/instruction set.

Looks like the Harmony is out for delivery today.....